Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-10-13

Them to Send in Lists of Republicans
to Whom Campaign Documents Are to
Be Sent.
Special Correspondence.
COLUMBUS, o., Oct. IA glittering ex-
ample of the civil service reform methods
of President Cleveland's postmasters and
of The great support Candidate Powell is
giving to Growers civil service notion, is
fo md in the present methods of Mr..
PUwell's committee. One of the first
things Mr.. DUNCAN and Mr.. Powell did
in starting the campaign was to get into
correspondence with the Democratic
postmasters throughout Ohio and urge
upon them the Importance of their aiding
in campaign work. Later on other let
tiers were sent TO these postmasters. The
following is an exact copy of one written
on state Democratic committee letter
head, sent to Democratic postmaster:
COLUMBUS, o., Sept. %, 1887.
'F. ArmentrOut F. NJ, Milsrsport. O.:
''DEAR SIR-Will you please send us at
once list of from twenty to fifty Re
publican farmers that get mail at your
Office so we can send them direct some
important documents? Do not fail TO do
this and it will count. We want to show
a gain in your neighberhood.
yours truly, IRVINE DUNCAN.
'IOver.J Chairman
This letter is significant in more than
one particular. From the statement in
it that Mr.. DUNCAN wants to send docu-
ments direct to the farmers It is ap-
parent that he has been using the Demo-
cratic postmasters for distributing dOcu-
ments heretofore, and now wishes them
to use their position as postmasters to
send him names of Republicans to whom
mail is addressed at their offices. He
also notifies them that this will count,
which indicates that he has had previous
correspondence with these Democratic
postmasters. Now, the query naturally
arises, Where did Mr.. DUNCAN get the
list of Democratic postmasters in Ohio?
He got them, of course, from the records
at Washington, and Mr.. Villas and Presi-
dent Cleveland's administration fur
nished them. The hypocracy of the
mugwumps, which is certain that Cleve-
land is a civil service reformer and the
postoffices are being run according to
their high-level ideas of civil service re-
form, are amusing in the light of this
letter. There is also significance in the
lover" which is found after the chair
mans name. Your correspondent is not
in possession of the document which ap-
parently accompanied this and was at
tached to it in some way, but has the
original letter; but there is no writing
on the back of it, and the ''Over'' must
have referred to another piece of paper
which was at tached and had been re-
moved before the letter was handed to
me. 1t apparently, however, had re-
lation to an assessment on postmasters.
THERE is no >eason for the Republicans
to conduct a campaign of abuse, and they
are not doing it, although the record in
private business of some of the Demo-
cratic candidates may not bear close in
vestigation. The Republicans have not
gone into such matters for the reason that
the issues between the parties are such
that the Republican party can well afford
to stand upon its position on public ques-
tions and expect a majority of the voters
to come to it. This is not the case with
the Democrats. They are making cam
paign of abuse and slander against Re
publicans, and having nothing to be said
III favor of their candidates or cause are
devoting their whole time in misrepre-
senting Republicans. The time has gone
by when such methods can win in Ohio,
if they ever could, and from Lake Erie on
the north to the Ohio river on the south,
and from the boundary of Pennsylvania
to the Hoosier line the masses will rise
up with indignation to stamp their disap-
proval of such illegitimate campaign
methods with their votes, and will teach
Mr.. Powell and Mr.. DUNCAN that they
cannot play the people of this great state
for chumps and fools.
EVERY man, whether he was soldier
or not, respects the veterans who belong
to the Gratsd ARMY of the ReOuh1ic or